Student Achievement Division

February 2013

WHAT WORKS?
Research into Practice

A research-into-practice series produced by a partnership between the Literacy and

Numeracy Secretariat and the Ontario Association of Deans of Education
Student Achievement Division

Research Monograph #47

What can educators do to

enhance the role of families
in literacy development?

Supporting Families as
Collaborators in Childrens
Literacy Development
by Dr. Michelann Parr
Nipissing University

Research Tells Us
Supporting families as collaborators in
childrens literacy development requires:
helping parents and caregivers recognize
the many ways literacy is fostered on a
day-by-day basis at home
working collaboratively with families
talking with them, not at or over them
and building on their strengths
engaging in ongoing dialogue that
respects cultural, linguistic and familial
identities
planning family literacy activities that
are fun, meaningful and engaging

TOWARDS A FULLY LITERATE CANADA

Children are born into a world of language. They are immersed in the
words of their parents, their siblings, and those who care for them. Their
speech emerges gradually and naturally as they learn to respond to those
around them. . . . Lives of literacy begin in a family setting. (p. 35)1
Many families are unaware of the valuable role they play in apprenticing their
children into literacy. When asked what they do to support their childrens
literacy development, they often think in terms of school-based tasks, rather
than the things they do each day: singing a lullaby, playing card games, talking
at the dinner table or checking email. Because there is no evident academic
or school connection, families undervalue what they do that fosters literacy.
It is essential, then, that educators help parents understand the important
role they play in their childrens education. As the Ministry of Education
points out, When parents are engaged and involved, everyone students,
parents, and families, teachers, schools, and communities benefits, and
our schools become increasingly rich and positive places to teach, learn
and grow (p. 5).2

What We Know
MICHELANN PARR, PhD, teaches
language and literacy in the Schulich
School of Education at Nipissing University
in North Bay, Ontario. Her research interests
include family literacy, text-to-speech
technology and its impact on the reading
process, and writing as a way of understanding. Dr. Parr is also interested in the
pre-service development of language and
literacy teachers.

Families spontaneously engage in meaningful and purposeful literacy,

regardless of socioeconomic, cultural and linguistic differences.3 Research
demonstrates, however, that there is often disparity between what is valued
at school and what is practised at home, which may marginalize some families,
particularly those whose literacy levels may fall below the norm or who may
The Student Achievement Division is committed to providing teachers with current research
on instruction and learning. The opinions and conclusions contained in these monographs are,
however, those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies, views, or directions
of the Ontario Ministry of Education or the Student Achievement Division.

be engaged in learning English.4,5,6 Educators, therefore, need to (a) examine

their assumptions about linguistic, cultural and socioeconomic diversity,
literacy, and family resources6,7 and (b) reinforce the significance of literacy
activities including multilingual and culturally diverse literacy practices
in which children and families are already engaged.3,6,8

On the role of families

in literacy ...
Families spontaneously engage in
meaningful and purposeful literacy,
regardless of socioeconomic, cultural
and linguistic differences.

Our schools are rich with cultural, linguistic and familial diversity. Yet in
working with a predominantly English-language curriculum, many teachers
struggle to infuse this diversity into classroom practice,5,6,9 which may limit
the opportunities for collaboration and corresponding levels of family
engagement.7 Each family has a unique set of literacy practices, ways of
knowing and expectations that contribute to their childrens school success
and academic achievement, particularly in literacy.3,7,10,11 When these
differences are viewed as resources and invited into the classroom, children
can make connections between what happens at home and what happens
at school. 5,6,10 Complementary home and school practices, such as the
collaborative creation of multilingual texts, signal to families that reading,
writing and talking in any language, with any text contribute to overall
literacy development.5,6 Even more critical is the validation and legitimation
of family literacies.5
To engage families as partners in literacy, we must find ways to implement
collaborative practices that validate families significance in childrens
ongoing literacy development, build on and extend existing family literacy
practices and affirm the cultural and linguistic identities of families.5,6,8

Ways to Engage Families as Literacy Collaborators

At the beginning of the year
Get to know your families by taking a family literacy inventory10 Focus on
what families already do to help them understand their role as collaborator and
model in their childrens education. Reinforce the importance of multilingual,
culturally diverse and multimodal practices; encourage families to talk to
their children about what they are doing. Model how to do this by briefly
sharing your own multilingual, culturally diverse and multimodal practices.
Questions such as those suggested in A Family Literacy Inventory (below)
can be adapted for use with diverse families.
A Family Literacy Inventory

How often and in what languages ...

t
are you seen reading a newspaper, magazine or sales flyer, viewing a
website or talking about the latest film or music release?
t
do you communicate through text messages, emails, letters, thank-you
cards, phone or video calls or face-to-face communication?
t
do you tell and retell family stories, sing songs or share cultural or
bedtime stories, poems or rhymes?
t
do you encourage your children to join in or make up new stories,
rhymes or songs?
t
do you read, write and talk for different purposes in your home
(e.g., making grocery lists)?
Let families know that you are interested in getting to know their children
and what they bring to the classroom Send home a questionnaire or
schedule a conference to ask about childrens favourite stories, poems or
songs, and their special interests, talents, strengths and goals for the year.
Alternatively, design and display an All About Me poster, using photos,
images or words in multiple languages.

What Works? Research into Practice

All Year Long

Acknowledge families as collaborators in childrens literacy development
Find ways to keep the communication lines between home and school open.
When necessary, engage the services of a translator or encourage families to
bring along a relative or friend who can serve as a translator.
t
Touch base. Commit to communicating with five families a week, through
notes, email or phone, whichever is best for the family. Let them know
that youve noticed something interesting or exciting or send home an
interesting work sample. Surprise families with a caught you being
good call or note.
t
Invite input. Schedule just five minutes more for each parent-teacher
interview. Let families speak first. Ask them to tell you what they noticed
and then fill in the gaps. Use samples of students work and exemplars
to help families understand exactly where their children are and provide
them with specific suggestions of how to support and extend this learning
at home.
t
Plan for involvement. School initiatives such as kindergarten orientations,
beginning-of-year barbeques and curriculum nights provide an informal
contact point for families and schools. You may also facilitate extended
conversations with families that address issues families consider significant
(e.g., Ministry policies).12

On the role of educators

in family literacy ...
Focus on what families already do
to help them understand their role
as collaborator and model in their
childrens education. Reinforce the
importance of multilingual, culturally
diverse and multimodal practices.
Encourage families to talk to their
children about what they are doing.

Reinforce the modelling of literate behaviours Invite families to extend

the exercise by sharing their stories through a series of images (drawn,
painted or photographed). Engage families in workshops or add brief family
tips to school newsletters to ensure that parents realize that their role as
literacy models continues long after school entry.
t
Help families to understand that reading, writing and talk in any language
contribute to literacy development. Create multi-language texts with
children, families or communities. Use texts, such as David Bouchards
Nokum is My Teacher, as models to create new multi-language childrens
stories. Visit websites, such as Thornwood Public Schools Dual Language
Showcase (http://www.thornwoodps.ca/dual/index.htm) and Family
Treasures and Grandmas Soup A Dual Language Book Project
(http://www.duallanguageproject.com), for tips and inspiration.
t
Make connections between family traditions and literacy. Show families how
their childrens favourite family stories, songs or rhymes can be recorded
in more than one language, if possible illustrated, sung, read and
dramatized. Encourage children and families to share these texts at school.
t
Model reading aloud, no matter what age, language or text. Encourage
parents to establish a read-aloud routine. Demonstrate how planning
questions prior to reading will allow parents to discuss the text with
their child. Remind them that younger children like to reread the same
texts and will at some point join in or turn the pages sowing the seeds
for reading on their own. Show them how to extend texts through fun
activities (e.g., paint a picture, act it out, follow a recipe).
Implement fun and meaningful activities that families cant help but do
again just for fun Invite families to engage in home practice that incorporates and extends skills and strategies previously introduced at school.
t
Adventure with journey animals. Choose a stuffed or plastic animal that
will travel to each familys home. Find a text that will inspire interesting
adventures (e.g., Adventures of Cow by Lori Korchek or Flat Stanley
by Jeff Brown). Pack a bag that includes a journal, a camera or markers/
crayons, writing instruments, etc. Model one journal entry and ask each
family to add another.
t
Turn homework into family literacy practice. Ensure that what you send
home can be done independently. Challenge children to teach parents

February 2013

Learn More about LNS

Resources ...
Online:
www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/
publications.html
Call:
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1-800-387-5514
Email:
LNS@ontario.ca

how to do something and to come up with ways to share what they have
done at home in class. Its a subtle shift, but far more fun and indicative
of what a child can do!
Acknowledge students as collaborators in home-school communication
Encourage families to talk about their days, goals and accomplishments
(in their language of choice).
t
Give them something to talk about. Often children dont talk because they
cant isolate something to talk about. Send home something small to
stimulate talk!
t
Use daily family message journals as an alternative to agendas.13 Messages
about school activities or homework written by students to family provide
an authentic purpose for writing and reinforce the idea that writing is
writing in any language.
t
Write Friday letters.14 Encourage students to write a letter that summarizes
what they learned, found most interesting or liked best at school that
week; younger students can co-construct the letter through shared writing,
adding images to personalize texts. Compile each students letters in a
journal, or folder, leaving room for parents to respond.
t
Co-construct classroom newsletters. Encourage students to gather
interesting articles and bits of information in a file that will be used
to prepare the highlights of the classs month. Dont forget to reserve
space for upcoming events.

In Sum

REFERENCES

Families are the first and most powerful teachers of their children.1,2 What
children learn prior to entering the school doors, without formal instruction,
is worthy of recognition and appreciation. The goal of school initiatives
should, therefore, be to weave together diverse family literacy practices and
academic/schooled literacy practices. Acknowledging families as collaborators
in their childrens literacy development, and validating cultural, linguistic
and familial practices, ultimately sets the stage for lifelong engagement
with literacy and learning.15

1. HRDC. (2005). Towards a fully literate Canada: Achieving

national goals through a comprehensive Pan-Canadian literacy
strategy. Ministerial Advisory Committee on Literacy and
Essential Skills. Retrieved from www.nald.ca/library/research/
towards/towards.pdf
2. Ministry of Education. (2010). The full day early-learning
program. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/
curriculum/elementary/kindergarten.html
3. Heath, S. B. (2010). Family literacy or community learning?
Some critical questions on perspective. In K. Dunsmore &
D. Fisher (Eds.), Bringing literacy home (pp. 1541). Newark,
DE: International Reading Association.
4. Jeynes, W. H. (2005). A meta-analysis of the relation of parental
involvement to urban elementary school student academic
achievement. Urban Education, 40, 237269.
5. Taylor, L. K., Bernhard, J. K., Garg, S., & Cummins, J. (2008).
Affirming plural belonging: Building on students family-based
cultural and linguistic capital through multiliteracies pedagogy.
Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 8, 269294.
6. Cummins, J. (2009). Pedagogies of choice: Challenging coercive
relations of power in classrooms and communities. International
Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 12, 261271.
7. Compton-Lilly, C. (2009). Listening to families over time:
Seven lessons learned about literacy in families. Language Arts,
86, 449457.
8. Johnson, A. S. (2010). The Jones familys culture of literacy.
The Reading Teacher, 64, 3344.

9. Schechter, S. R., & Ippolito, J. (2008) Parent involvement AS

education: Activist research in multilingual and multicultural
urban schools. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy 5, 163183.
10. Gonzales, N., Moll, L., Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2005). Funds of
knowledge: Theorising practices in households, communities,
and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
11. Weigel, D., Martin, S., & Bennett, K. (2010). Pathways to literacy:
Connections between family assets and preschool childrens
emergent literacy skills. Journal of Early Childhood Research,
8, 522.
12. Ippolito, J. (2010). Minority parents as researchers: Beyond
a dichotomy of parental involvement in schooling. Canadian
Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 114, 4768.
13. Valerie, L. M., & Foss-Swanson, S. (2012). Hey! Guess what I did
in school today. Teaching Exceptional Children, 44(3), 4048.
14. Newman, T. H., & Bizzari, S. A. (2011/12). Friday letters:
Connecting students, teachers, and families through writing.
The Reading Teacher, 65, 275280.
15. Ministry of Education (2010). Parents in partnership:
A parental engagement policy for Ontario Schools.
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/policy.html.

Acknowledgement
This research project was supported by the Schulich School
of Education.

What Works? is updated monthly and posted at: www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/whatWorks.html

ISSN 1913-1097 What Works? Research Into Practice (Print)
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